Chronicles of an Assassin

"Heh. Anyone who tells ya they didn't have second thoughts...if ya wanna call it regret, sure, about some contract is fuckin' lyin'."

Day 22 Wealth

Ande rarely came back to this place. She walked through the manor, fingers trailing along the stair-rail as she made her way up. There were no cobwebs. She made sure of that. A full staff still cares for the palatial estate. 

What brought her back now? Restlessness? A sense of unease? 

It hurt to come back here. That kind of pain wasn’t something she handled well. Still, here she was. She paused at the top of the steps. She hadn’t been in their room since he left. She supposed she should just call it as it was. He was dead. 

Because of that most unfortunate thing, all of this was hers. When he was here, she loved being here. Living lavishly. Spending gold never diminished his wealth. But without him, she didn’t enjoy it. After his death, she left and didn’t look back for years.  Ande kept her dingy apartment on the row. She had sold everything else of his but couldn’t bear to sell this. 

The bulk of his wealth was still sitting in the bank. She used to to live more comfortably and to buy the entire apartment building she lived in. She also invested a portion and was living nicely on the returns.

He had afforded her the ability to retire save for the occasional forgery. But here she was, restless and eager to get back into the affray. Not that there was much to get into right now.  She knew she didn’t want to return to being a killer for hire, but there were other options worth considering.  She had lived long enough to know peace only lasted so long.

Soon.

Day 4 -- Breakthrough/Broken

When Ande arrived at Golden Tree Sanitarium, she was met, for the first time, with a smiling face.  “Ah, Ms. Daystar, you’ll be happy to know we’ve had a breakthrough.  Ms. Palesworn is responding to treatment. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Ande simply nodded.  “Thanks. That’s what I’m payin ya for, afterall.”  She barely hesitated and headed for room 202. 

Shit Shit Shit...that girl was gonna tell all. If she ain’t already. This is gonna be a shitshow.

“Ms. Daystar!  Please do still be careful. We think she’s still quite fragile!”

She threw up a hand in acknowledgement as she continued down the hall.  Two brief knocks and she walked in the room.

Deysendra smiled as Ande walked in the door much to Ande’s relief.  “Hey there. That’s a right pretty smile you’ve got.”

Deysendra nodded.  “Thank you. I didn’t know if I’d see you again.  I’m very glad you came.”

Ande leaned against the door jam. “Hey, I’m glad you’re able to talk again. Had me worried back there. How’re they treatin ya? Ya think you’re gonna be okay?”

“Most of them are fine, really. There are a few that are really persnickety about getting me to talk. I know better though. I won’t tell.”

The blonde drew in a deep breath and sighed. This was an interesting development. How did she know? 

Before Ande could say a word, Deysendra continued, “I know what happened. I think I know what you did. You fixed it all, right? You took papa away so no one would find out what I did.”

Ande’s brow raised. What. The. Fuck. “Listen girl, what’re you on about?”

Deysendra gave a little shrug. “People don’t always realize I’m there. Or they talk about things as if I’m not there. I hear things….” She smiled.  “I know things.”

Ande went cold. Breakthrough my ass. This girl is downright broken. Had this all been a plan? Had she only appeared to be in shock when Ande found her with her badly burned father? The girl had been here three...four months? Longer? Hadn’t spoken a word until now. Was it all a ruse? The look on Ande’s face likely told Deysendra exactly what she was thinking.

“Don’t worry. You could have left me there but you didn’t. Your secrets are safe with me. So long as mine is with you.”

“I wouldnt’ve done any of it if it weren’t gonna be hush hush. Your secret is my secret. It’s all taken care of, but you can’t ever talk about any of this. To anyone. Got it? If ya feel like you’ve gotta go blabbing about somethin’ you talk to me.” Ande stared at Deysendra for a long moment. “Got it?”

Deysendra waved a dismissive hand.  “Oh fiddle, of course I’ve got it. Now, you put me here. What shall we do about getting me out?”

Ande had worked for Eridan Palesworn for 50 years. She never questioned his motives.  It wasn’t her business or job. Her usual work for him was reconnaissance or altering paperwork and she had never seen anything out of the ordinary. 

On this autumn day, she had an appointment to deliver some forged paperwork.  When she arrived, she found the dark haired girl sitting in the middle of the floor. Mister Palesworn sat at his desk, burned to a crisp. Ande had never really talked to the girl, only seeing her in passing but knew she was his daughter. His princess is what he’d always called her.

The girl stared at her father, or what was left of him as Ande approached.  She could tell the girl was in shock.

The rogue had no immediate problem as it wasn’t her mess to clean up. She wasn’t sure she cared enough to even be bothered. It was only after stepping over to the desk, spying the singed papers laying there that she realized his ‘business.’

She looked over at the catatonic girl and her heart wrenched. That never happened. She quickly realized she can’t blame the girl and obviously, it hadn’t been easy.

As she pulled her comm out, she took a deep breath. It was time to make quick work of this mess. After making two calls, she started cleaning the scene.

When Laren arrived, she pointed to the girl. “She needs help. Don’t fucking try to talk to her. Take her to this address. They know what to do about…this.” She motions back to the girl. 

Laren just stood and stared at the scene.

“Fuck all. Go!”

“Got it boss,” Laren murmured before picking up the girl and carrying her away.

“Now to finish cleanin’ up this mess.”

Ande took the stairs up from her small apartment on the Row. She entered the dark room and tossed her keys on the desk. She paused to light the lamp, taking a look over the dusty papers as she sipped her coffee. She ran her hands through her damp hair and sat down, kicking her feet up on the desk.

Her eyes settled on the rack of poisons.  It has been so long since she’s used any of them. Could she really complain?

 What could she do with more money?  What would Nolah do if she didn’t come home? How had it even gone from fun to raising two kids?

She’d considered it.  Not as much as she’d considered renovating Tip’s estate for Nolah and the kids.  Nolah didn’t even know about the estate.  Hell, she didn’t know about the apartment building.  That little bit was between Kordelaine and Ande.  Even though Kord had figured it out, she still slid the monthly rent collection under this door.  

Outside of a few forgery jobs, that’s the only reason Ande had come here lately.

That restless feeling had begun to creep back in. Finding a new way to handle it, that was the problem. Her comm buzzed and she lazily looked down at it.  Nolah. 

She hopped up and gulped down the last of her coffee. No time for restlessness today.

bold what applies italic what might apply cross out what isn’t possible